Historic win for Sheffield Steeldogs

Saturday’s visit to Telford to take on the league leading Tigers was always going to be a test of the Steeldogs mettle.

The Tigers are the only team to have left iceSheffield with a league win and with Dogs captain Lewis Bell missing through injury, Telford looked strong favourites.

Ben Morgan’s team came out strong and opened the scoring in the tenth minute with former Tiger Milan Kolena getting the goal. The home side equalised early in the second period but this only seemed to fire-up Sheffield and a sweet finish from Cam Brownley gave them a deserved lead in a period they outshot Telford by 13 to 5.

Telford kept on pushing but found a determined and hardworking Dogs team difficult to break down and when they did get chances, Dmitri Zimozdra was in impressive form between the pipes. Tigers pulled their goalie with two minutes left in the game but Kolena scored before Ben Morgan shot from the Dogs goal line to add another empty netter, securing the win.

Lewis Bell said: “I think that was probably the best performance not just of this season but in a big, high pressure game, possibly the best ever for the club.

"Every guy followed the plan exactly for 60 minutes and showed real character not to crumble when Telford scored. I might have a battle getting back in to the team!”

Steeldogs completed the weekend with a 5-1 win in Billingham. The Stars had taken the Dogs to overtime in the previous visit to The Forum but a brace from Adrian Palak put them in control and the result never looked in doubt.

This weekend the Dogs face three home games in three days, starting with a Friday night visit from Jason Hewitt and the Hull Pirates who are in 2nd place behind Sheffield.

Forward Lloyd Gibson has no doubt about how big a game it will be; “It’s the best game of the year! Definitely the most important game that the Steeldogs have played on for many years. The games have all been tight, exciting games this season and Friday will be the same as there is so much at stake”.

Gibson also knows that the game against Solihull (Saturday 7:30pm) and Deeside (Sunday 1pm) are as important; “You have to respect all the teams in this league, we have seen they can be real banana skins. It’s championship time and we are looking to win every remaining game.

"Obviously the Hull game is massive but we have to make sure we keep on collecting the points in all the other games and keep pushing right to the last game”.